Keith Gerein: Jason Kenney's past views continue to haunt him, but how much should Albertans care?

Cody Johnston, a United Conservative member who sits on a number of constituency association boards, told reporters on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018 that he can no longer sit on any UCP board with a leader like Jason Kenney. Supplied

During my first few years of university, I can remember telling friends I was uncomfortable with the idea of extending marriage rights to same-sex couples.

I was young, unsophisticated and felt a misguided duty to defend conservative values — or as I saw them, Alberta values — that were often attacked at the liberal Ontario university I chose to attend.

My views evolved quickly in the years afterward, as I began travelling the world, met more people and developed better critical thinking skills. For a long time now I have proudly supported a woman’s right to choose and fully equal rights for the LGBTQ community.

Still, those memories of my twenty-something self came flooding back this week as I read an angry letter from United Conservative Party volunteer Cody Johnston, who resigned from a handful of constituency boards and demanded the party cancel his membership.

Johnston, who is gay, said he was motivated to leave the UCP by the recent resurfacing of an old audio clip of leader Jason Kenney. In the clip, Kenney touts his work with a pro-life group in the late 1980s to successfully overturn a law giving hospital visitation rights to gay couples during the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco.

Asked by reporters last week if those actions were among the things he regrets from his life, Kenney replied succinctly.

“Sure,” he said.

There was no elaboration of why he regretted it, though Kenney did go on to say that his public record in more recent years has demonstrated support for “domestic partner arrangements” and benefits for same sex couples.

That wasn’t enough for Johnston — who, it should be noted, is now communications director with Derek Fildebrandt’s Freedom Conservative Party — since he felt Kenney failed to properly take responsibility or apologize for his past actions.

Immediately, UCP staff responded by calling Johnston’s stance “ridiculous,” and noted that the audio in question is 20 years old.

The most interesting question the whole episode raises is around how fair it is to hold Kenney’s past views against him today — or anyone’s past views, for that matter.

Members of the NDP caucus, for example, used to be involved in activism against the oil industry but are now desperately supporting the construction of new pipelines.

In general, I prefer to judge people on who they are now.

But with Kenney, the question is trickier than it should be.

In part, that’s because his support for “domestic partner relationships” and assurances he won’t legislate on “divisive social issues” like abortion have tended to come across more as a political calculation rather than sincerely held personal values.

That commitment is important, no matter the motivation. But it won’t be good enough for a lot of Albertans, many of whom cast their vote on how they perceive the character of party leaders.

To my knowledge, Kenney has not spoken about how closely he still holds the beliefs he did when he was an anti-abortion activist years ago. He has not, to my knowledge, apologized for the hurtful advocacy he did to overturn gay spousal rights.

This is the party whose members voted in May to reverse legislation banning teachers from “outing” students who join gay-straight alliances to their parents.

More recently, when social conservative evangelist John Carpay was heard to have compared a Nazi swastika with the rainbow flag, Kenney condemned the comments but refused to demand Carpay’s ousting from the party.

Kenney’s appeal that has carried him to overwhelming wins in the PC leadership race, the UCP unification vote, the UCP leadership race, and his byelection campaign in Calgary is undoubtedly based on a number of factors.

I suspect some Albertans can relate to his story of how positions on divisive issues can change over time. I’m one of them.

Others undoubtedly are attracted to Kenney’s leadership because they believe he still holds those socially conservative positions, or is at least sympathetic to them.

The problem for Kenney is that he is trying to do a delicate little dance that will keep both of these groups in his fold — guaranteeing that party policies will come from the grassroots while simultaneously vowing to overrule ideas he sees as political dynamite.

At some point, the UCP leader is likely going to have to choose.

It’s clear some Albertans will always remain suspicious of Kenney because of his past.

But if the UCP leader came forward with a genuine apology for his anti-LGBTQ advocacy, some evidence of soul searching, and clarity on how reformed he really is, that could go a long way toward building trust with Albertans he has yet to win over.

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